The annual TNT Christmas Party is Sunday, Dec. 20 at 2 p.m. in Fellowship Hall. Can you help to make the spirit bright? We're looking for helpers ahead of the event and elves the day of the party. Click here to discover the TNT Christmas Wish List, including all the ways you can help this shared ministry between adults with developmental disabilities, members of Vine Street and community volunteers!
The Journey 2015 continues this month with a Q&A meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 9 at 6 p.m. in Fellowship Hall, hosted by the Vision Team (Stephen Moseley, Allyn Maxfield-Steele, Amanda Miller, Camille Biter, Ed Cole, Jackie Halstead, Katie McLaughlin and Thomas Kleinert). All Vine Street Christian Church participants are encouraged to attend.
But how will it work?
Submit your questions today to Stephen Moseley (stephen.moseley@gmail.com). Those questions will be added to the ones that have come up over the last several weeks as we have pursued The Journey 2015, the dynamic process by which Vine Street Christian Church is faithfully and wisely discerning our future ministry in Nashville and beyond. During the Dec. 9 meeting, members of the Vision Team and the Property Task Force will be on hand to share questions and to provide answers.
Most of our prayer triplets are close to completing their six sessions of listening to Scripture, praying and sharing. Our teenagers, college students and many of our homebound members have also participated in related conversations, sharing feedback with the Vision Team. Now this Q&A meeting will be a helpful way to address questions. Let’s discover together how God is moving through Vine Street Christian Church!
Winter Dinners 2016 will kick off soon after the first of the year, but the opportunity to sign up is happening right now. Winter Dinners are small groups that share a meal together in January, February and March, and they are a wonderful way to connect with your Vine Street Christian Church community. Will you join us?
Participants are grouped based on where they live, generally, so people who live near one another can get to know each other better. Each group decides how, when and where they will gather. Maybe it will be at the church; or perhaps a fun restaurant; or, maybe you’ll share a group-prepared meal in someone’s home? You can do all three, one each month—it’s up to your Winter Dinner group!
Posters are around the church building. Fill out the paper slip and place it in an offering plate or give it to one of the ministers. But why wait? Click here to sign up today!
Baby, it’s getting cold outside, but Winter Dinners 2016 is sure to warm up the season.
We are looking for readers for two of our services, Hanging of the Greens at the beginning of Advent (Sunday, November 29, 4:30 p.m.) and Christmas Eve, just an hour before Advent ends at midnight and Christmas begins. Hanging of the Greens includes short readings that encourage reflection on Christmas traditions like bells, candles, and evergreens. The readings on Christmas Eve are from Scripture.
We like having readers of all ages, male and female, various native tongues, etc. You may never have done anything like this, or it may be something you are looking forward to every year. If you would like to be one of the readers, just let us know with a couple of clicks on the form below. Thank you!
The Vine Street Christian Church Children’s Choir will perform the musical An Unplugged Christmas on Wednesday, Dec. 16 in Fellowship Hall. A pasta dinner, prepared by the Rev. (Chef) Thomas Kleinert & Co., kicks off the event at 6 p.m. Donations received during the evening will benefit the church’s children’s music program.
Created by the Dove Award-winning Susie Williams and Luke Gambill, An Unplugged Christmas is directed by Katie & T.J. McLaughlin and accompanied by pianist Micah Snow. The plot centers on a group of kids that discover the true meaning of Christmas while preparing for the biggest, brightest Christmas show ever.
Save the date and join us, celebrating the season and the children of Vine Street!
Reflecting on Syria and Mark 9: 30-37.
By Thomas Kleinert
Abdullah Kurdi and his family had fled the violence in Syria two years ago. By the end of August they had made their way to the Aegean coast of Turkey. The smugglers had promised Abdullah Kurdi a motorboat for the trip from Turkey to Greece, a step on the way to a new life in Canada. Instead, they showed up with a 15-foot rubber raft that flipped in high waves, dumping Mr. Kurdi, his wife and their two small sons into the sea. Only Mr. Kurdi survived. His wife, Rehan and their two sons, Aylan and Ghalib, drowned. You may have seen the imgage of a lifeless child in a red shirt and dark shorts face down on a Turkish beach. It was 3-year-old Aylan, his round cheek pressed to the sand as if he were sleeping, except for the waves lapping his face. “Now I don’t want anything,” Mr. Kurdi said a day later, from Mugla, Turkey, after filling out forms at a morgue to claim the bodies of his family. “Even if you give me all the countries in the world,” he said, “I don’t want them. What was precious is gone.”[1]
Nearly 12 million Syrians have been forced from their homes by the fighting – that’s the equivalent of the population of Ohio. Half are children. An entire generation of children have been forced to quit school. They are at risk of becoming ill, malnourished, abused, or exploited.[2] Most of them live in improvised camps in Syria, in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. Many families try to make their way to Europe. You have heard the news. This past week, Hungarian police at the Serbian border drove migrants back with tear gas, pepper spray and water cannons.[3]
There’s so much fear. So much helplessness. So much political maneuvering.
“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me,” says Jesus, “and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” We have heard the word how some have entertained angels unawares by showing hospitality to strangers.[4] I can’t help but visualize the scene at the border fence with razor wire, tear gas, pepper spray, water cannons, and the angels of heaven. And Jesus didn’t say, angels. “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” Jesus has identified himself with the littlest ones among us, those of little or no status, and he tells us that welcoming one of them in his name we welcome the Maker of heaven and earth.
Jesus knows about our fears and our ambitions and our helplessness. The scene Mark describes for us takes place in Galilee. Jesus and the disciples are on the way, which is to say they’re on the way to Jerusalem; but it goes beyond geography, because they are on the way to the kingdom of God, and we are on the way with them. We believe that Jesus is God’s Messiah, the one who sets all things right, and like his first followers we are learning to trust him with our whole hearts. He’s been teaching us about what lies ahead for him. “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” Mark makes room for us in the story by telling us that the disciples did not understand what Jesus was saying and were afraid to ask him. Why were they afraid to ask? For the same reasons, I imagine, you and I are afraid to ask questions. We don’t want to look stupid in front of everybody. Even when we’re scared, confused and clueless, we still want to project confidence and make everybody else believe that we have it all together. We fake it till we make it.
Jesus, of course, doesn’t hesitate to ask us questions. “What were you talking about on the way?” And he asks not because he doesn’t know, but because he does. It appears that when we’re afraid to ask the difficult questions about the way of Jesus Christ, we end up talking about the usual stuff like who’s the greatest. We’re ambitious people, we strife for excellence, we study hard, we work hard, we’re competitive; we quickly absorb the unwritten rules of what adds to our status and what doesn’t, and we learn to act accordingly.
If we don’t ask questions about the way of Jesus Christ, we talk about seating arrangements at the great banquet and who’ll be at the head table, and who’s been with Jesus the longest, and who can recite from memory every word of the sermon on the mount, and who got to go up the mountain with Jesus, and who’ll be sitting at Jesus’ right and left in his glory.
“What were you talking about on the way?” he asks us, and there’s a long silence. The moment he talks with us, we know that the things that preoccupy our thoughts, our conversations and our work have little to do with him and his way in the world. We are very familiar with the ways of the world, whether we like it or not, and the old habits of acting and thinking are resilient. Three times in the gospel of Mark, Jesus talks about being rejected and betrayed, about being handed over, condemned, and killed, and about rising again after three days. Three times, not just because these difficult words don’t sink in easily; but because our life as disciples of Jesus is so profoundly shaped by following him on the way of loving surrender of self for the sake of God’s reign. Three times he tells us and we’re afraid to ask because we’re afraid he’s going to turn our world upside down. “Whoever wants to be first,” he says, “whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” In our world, the ones at the top lord it over those at the bottom. But in the kingdom of God, earth and heaven do not touch at the top of the ladder, in the clouds of power, but at the bottom where Jesus stoops to wash the feet of all.
We argue about who is the greatest and Jesus puts a little child among us. Politicians pick up little children all the time, their PR people tell them it looks good on television and it makes them more likeable. But Jesus doesn’t pick up a child to draw attention to himself. He does it to draw our attention to the child. He does it to draw our attention away from our anxious obsession with status. He picks up a child to teach us the kingdom way.
In 1999, John Baptist Odama became the archbishop of Gulu, in northern Uganda. For years, a group calling themselves the Lord’s Resistance Army had been waging war against the Ugandan government; it also terrorized the civilian population, burning villages, killing and maiming civilians, and abducting children, tens of thousands of children, to replenish their fighting ranks. It was at the height of this violent eruption that Odama was installed as archbishop of Gulu.
Now the installation of an archbishop is very serious business. Talk about climbing up the ladder! Talk about status! Talk about authority! Not to mention the carefully laid out seating arrangements in the cathedral and at the reception following the service. Many powerful dignitaries were in attendance: a papal representative from Rome, the president of Uganda, various bishops, ministers and a host of others. All serious stuff. The symbols of the high office were laid out in the chancel, the ring, the mitre, the staff, and the pallium – all the regalia, all serious stuff.
But the new Archbishop had more important things on his mind. He took a child in his arms and asked her, “Do you like war?” The girl turned her head from side to side; no, she didn’t like war or anything about it. He then asked her, “Do you like peace?” and she nodded enthusiastically. The Archbishop, still holding the child in his arms, turned to the congregation and said, “This child has defined for us our pastoral ministry. I commit myself to work for the future that this child has defined, to eliminate war, build peace for the sake of this child, … so that the full humanity of this child might grow and flourish.”[5]
The kingdom of God is not about getting the best seat in the cathedral; it’s about noticing the little ones and welcoming them and letting them define our vision and work.
We all start out little, every single one of us. We all start out needing to be welcomed and held and loved, every single one of us. As we welcome the little and most vulnerable ones at our borders and in our communities, we also learn to welcome the vulnerable core of our own soul; we learn to embrace the little one within us.
“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me,” says Jesus, “and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
Welcome, welcome, welcome is woven into the fabric of this teaching like the holy, holy, holy sung by the angels in heaven.
Welcoming those who are not counted at the tables of greatness, we welcome Christ himself, and welcoming him, we welcome God to dwell among us.
Footnotes and more sermons by Thomas Kleinert are available on his blog.
Vine Street Christian Church will host a coffeehouse on Friday, Sept. 18 to benefit its Vine Street Living Waters clean water ministry. Headlining the musical event will be local alt-pop rock group Riptide, featuring Vine Street's Crawford Lyons. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and music begins at 7 p.m. There is a $5 cover charge. Desserts will be available to purchase. Additional donations will help to fund clean water projects regionally and internationally.
More than a billion people around the world don’t have access to pure water. Vine Street Living Waters aims to address that need by partnering with communities to build low tech, highly-effective water purification systems. Team members have traveled to Peru to pitch in on projects in that country. Recently, Vine Street Living Waters partnered with a Tennessee couple to install a clean water system in nearby Macon County.
This mission work is in partnership with Living Waters for the World (LWW), a ministry of the Presbyterian Church, USA based in Spring Hill Tenn., and Westminster Presbyterian Church of Nashville.
We can never take clean water for granted. There's a coffee mug, Bongo Java coffee and a great show waiting for you. Come on out Sept. 18!
Christian worship, worship approaches within other faith traditions, and Advent devotionals are among the season’s offerings.
Growing in faith by engaging the heart and mind, the adult Christian education program at Vine Street Christian Church is open to all post-high school-aged persons. Guided by church leaders and featuring occasional guest speakers from the Nashville community, adult Christian education meets most Sundays at 9 a.m. in Fellowship Hall.
Here’s the tentative lineup (topics and speakers are subject to change):
Unceasing Worship (Aug. 30) Jim Zamata will help us through a (very) brief survey of some of the different ways that the church understands its worship and why it is important for us to gather. He will lead us through questions like: What is happening when we worship? What does it mean to say that “Christ is present” at the table and how has the church understood this through the years? And perhaps, more importantly, why gather to worship at all?
Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs (Sept. 6) Amanda Miller will lead a discussion around the varied symbolism surrounding the idea of communion in the New Testament text. Beyond just remembrance of Christ’s death, there are also images of thanksgiving, eschatological feast and resurrection, among others.
Taste and See (Sept. 13) This week Amanda Miller and Thomas Kleinert will explore different ways to experience communion, and they will lead us in a communion service building on some of the different images we’ve studied.
Stack ’Em Up: Waffle Breakfast (Sept. 20) Everyone needs a study break! Join the Vine Street youth group and Rev. Hope Hodnett as they serve some of the finest golden brown waffles this side of Pancake Pantry. Sweet toppings and lots of hot coffee round out this tasty, all-church experience.
Worship in the Jewish Tradition (Sept. 27) Adult Christian education will feature guest speaker Rabbi Flip Rice. He will teach us about the practices of public worship in the Jewish tradition, as well as the manner it informs the daily life of those in the Jewish tradition.
Worship: Muslim Tradition (Oct. 4) Guest speaker Paul Galloway will explore with us the practices of public worship as well as the manner it informs the daily life of those in the Muslim tradition.
How Worship Informs Our Lives (Oct. 11, 18 and 25) Guided by Jackie Halstead, join us for a three-week series on the manner in which our lives can be a manifestation of our worship. We will discuss it in terms of suffering, daily tasks as worship and incarnational living with the people we encounter in our lives.
Worship through the Psalms (Nov. 1 & 8) More details coming soon!
Worship: Coptic Christianity (Nov. 15) We will welcome a guest speaker to teach us about the practices of public worship as well as the manner it informs the daily life of those in the Coptic Christian tradition.
Vine Street as Sacred Space (Nov. 22) What do clear windows in the sanctuary represent? Are the pew wood carvings significant? Ted Parks will lead this class as we explore the architecture and symbols present in the Vine Street Christian Church worship spaces.
Advent Devotionals Return in December It’s become a tradition that Vine Street participants create through an Advent devotional booklet to mark the holiday season and to encourage the community as we approach Christmas. On Dec. 6, 13, and 20, we anticipate having several contributors discuss their entries with the group.
For inquiries about these educational opportunities, contact Camille Biter, chair of the adult Christian education committee (camillebh@comcast.net).
This fall series comes on the heels of a special summer edition of adult Christian education during which participants read and discussed Short Stories By Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi by local scholar and Vanderbilt professor A.J. Levine.
Be part of a festive event that celebrates the opening of our new year of ministry with youth and children! After worship on Aug. 23, all our children/youth and their families are invited to the youth wing and playground area for a time of delicious food and great fun.
Hope Hodnett, Katie & T.J. McLaughlin and Linda Edwards (the new chair of the children’s ministry committee) will be on hand to share exciting news about our ministry with children and youth (ages 0-18 years) for the 2015-16 school year.
The main dish and ice cream sandwiches will be provided. Please bring a side dish to share.
Please note: Aug. 23 will also be the day we begin our new Sunday School classes.
After lunch, the sprinklers will be on; bathing suits and towels will be a good choice. Yes, there will be a family seed-spitting context! Feel free to practice during the weeks leading up to this event. Questions? Ask Hope or Linda (hope@vinestreet.org; edwlin@bellsouth.net).
Vine Street Christian Church honors work of local charity with grant.
Even in a thriving city like Nashville, individuals experiencing financial difficulties walk a difficult road. Senior men and women are especially challenged, given the likelihood of increased health needs and the prospect of age discrimination when trying to reenter the workplace.
To help ease these problems, Vine Street Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) recently awarded a one-time grant of $34,000 to Nashville’s Luke 14:12, a nonprofit soup kitchen that serves hot, nutritious, well-balanced midday meals to Nashville’s hungry, homeless and working poor. Established in 1983, Luke 14:12 serves meals in the dining room of Room in the Inn on Drexel Street downtown.
Alec Miller, chair of Vine Street’s outreach committee, which nominated Luke 14:12 for the grant, says the funds increase the ability of the organization to serve needy elderly men and women in the area over the course of a year. “Our prayers and encouragement are with this organization in its endeavors,” he says.
“Offering this grant is right in line with Vine Street’s mission for serving others,” says Jeff Miller, a member of Vine Street Christian Church who also serves on the Luke 14:12 Board. He helped to foster the relationship between the church and the soup kitchen.
“The Board of Luke 14:12 was thrilled by the news that we would receive this grant,” says the Rev. Amy Dodson-Watts, executive director, Luke 14:12. “These funds will allow us to better serve the most needy of our guests—Nashville's elderly, hungry and homeless. We are greatly appreciative of the opportunity to be considered for this grant.
“At every meal we provide an entree, vegetable, fruit, salad, bread, dessert and beverage,” Dodson-Watts continues. “These funds will allow Luke 14:12 to offer Nashville’s homeless elderly over 10,000 well-balanced, nutritionally complete meals for the next 12 months.”
“I don’t know another organization in town that does this kind of work as well as Luke 14:12,” says the Rev. Thomas Kleinert, senior minister of Vine Street Christian Church. “In addition to serving healthy meals, I love how they work with not only volunteers, but they meet some of their staffing needs with the homeless and the formerly homeless, giving them work to do, plus on-the-job training to help them move ahead.”
Luke 14:12 takes pride in offering a sit-down meal with table service, over a food line-style approach. For more than a year, Vine Street participants have volunteered to serve meals at least once a month, including Jeff Miller. “Once you go to Luke 14: 12 to serve a meal, you are called back. When you see the impact these nutritious meals have on a person’s daily walk and how appreciative they are, there is no other way around it but to go back to volunteer and to serve again.”
Funding for this grant was made possible in part by a generous bequest from Hallie Taylor Warner to Vine Street Christian Church, a gift that continues to make a difference for needy elderly in Nashville.
By Thomas Kleinert
Despite the world's news, hope and courage to carry on is found in the resurrection of Christ.
Who will roll away the stone for us? I heard the news on Tuesday and groaned. A Tennessee Senate subcommittee had again stopped a bill that would improve access to health insurance for hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans. Like many I had hoped that there would be a full Senate vote, but apparently not in this legislative session. I thought about Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain, again putting his shoulder to the boulder, flexing every muscle in his body to push the rock up the hill, without rest, without promise, without hope.
I heard the news of an airplane crash in the Alps and groaned. What level of despair must have gripped a man’s heart that he waits for the moment when the cockpit door closes behind his colleague and then he turns and flies an airplane full of people into a mountain?
Who will roll away the stone? It’s too large for us, too heavy. Thursday morning I heard the news about a gang of armed thugs who had forced their way into a school in Kenya. They started killing students, dozens of them, systematically and allegedly with divine sanction. Such madness, such violence; it’s too heavy, it’s too much.
Who will roll away the stone for us? That’s what the three women were saying to one another on the way to the cemetery. They wanted to anoint the body of Jesus who had to be buried with haste the day before the sabbath. Joseph of Arimathea had rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. The women wanted to honor Jesus with a proper burial, they wanted to touch his body gently one last time after all the violence and abuse he had suffered. But who would roll away the stone? Then they looked up and saw that the stone, huge as it was, had been rolled back already.
Inside they encounter an angelic messenger who delivers the good news of Jesus’ resurrection like an administrative assistant explaining why you can’t have a quick word with the boss: “You’re looking for Jesus? Sorry, you just missed him.” If it’s Jesus they want, they will need to head back to Galilee. And the messenger sends them off with simple instructions for the disciples, “There you will see him, just as he told you.”
Now you may want a moment to sit and ponder the angel’s words and whether you believe that curious sort of thing, you know, angels and resurrection and such. But there’s no time for that now because things become much curiouser in a heartbeat. For just when we assume that the women would dash out joyfully to proclaim the good news that Christ is risen they clam up entirely, overcome by fear. Mark ends his Gospel in midsentence,
So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid …
That’s hardly a shout of victory over death. Some would say, that’s no way to end a gospel. John does such a nice job with the woman in the garden and the breakfast on the beach, and Luke has the wonderful scene on the road to Emmaus, what happened to Mark? Did somebody rip out the last page? Or did he mean to end the story in this way?
Early Christian scribes who copied Mark’s Gospel tinkered with the ending. One added just a couple of sentences, indicating that the women did as they had been told. [1] Another scribe borrowed a few details from Matthew and Luke to compose a conclusion that would leave readers reassured that things were wrapped up nicely at the end of the story. [2] But what if this strange ending is exactly how Mark wants to tell this story? What if this gospel has this unfinished feel on purpose, and not because parts went missing? What if this gospel wants to leave us hanging in midsentence with a puzzled look on our faces?
We have heard and read the whole story, from its beginning to this moment. We witnessed Jesus’ baptism where the heavenly voice declared, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” We were there when Jesus began proclaiming the good news of God in Galilee. We heard him preach and teach about the kingdom, watched him inaugurate God’s reign by healing people and breaking bread with them, forgiving their sins and driving out demons. We heard him tell us three times about his death and resurrection. “After I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” [3] He did tell us, didn’t he? We were there when Jesus prayed in Gethsemane and the disciples couldn’t keep awake. We were there when Judas betrayed him, Peter denied him, and all the disciples deserted him. When Jesus was arrested, questioned and judged, mocked, abused and executed, we were there, because Mark took us there. We know that the women were the only ones who didn’t run away. Not until now, that is. They fled from the tomb and said nothing to nobody, for they were afraid.
Now everyone has fled, but the story is not over. We have heard it; we have read it. We have lived through its every moment, and now it’s up to us what happens next. If we want to read on, we must let our own lives become the writing. Will we trust the promise and go to Galilee? Will we go back to the beginning and follow Jesus on the way?
Not going is an option, as is silence. We can deny the whole thing, act as though it never happened, and continue to live in the Friday world where Jesus is in the tomb. Or we can begin to live in the world where Jesus is on the loose. We can head back to Galilee and catch up with him in the places and among the people where he’s at work. We can continue to immerse ourselves in the whole story in order to know where to look for him and what he may be up to. We can continue to try to fully understand that he doesn’t play the world’s violent power games, but has an authority that makes the demons scream and run. We can continue to discover that the cross was not a stop on the way to greater things, but the character of Jesus’ greatness. For followers of Jesus, Galilee now is the name for the world through which the way of Christ leads to Jerusalem. Galilee is the land of promise and faith where he is going ahead of us. Nashville is in Galilee. Every place on earth where human beings hunger and thirst for righteousness is in Galilee.
Peter, James, and John were the disciples who first followed Jesus; Mary Magdalene, Salome, and Mary the mother of James were the followers who stayed with him the longest, and all of them, Mark tells us, fled, overwhelmed by fear. But the risen Christ didn’t choose a new team. God raised those frightened men and women to live as witnesses of the living Christ. Mark doesn’t tell us that, but we wouldn’t be reading Mark if it hadn’t been so, and if it didn’t continue to be so. Bill Sloan Coffin noted years ago,
Not only Peter but all the apostles after Jesus’ death were ten times the people they were before; that’s irrefutable. (…) I believe passionately in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because in my own life I have experienced Christ not as memory, but as presence. [4]
I believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and on many a day it’s the only thing I believe in; the world gives me more than enough reasons to become a cynic, but the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead gives me hope and courage to carry on.
Easter is not about memory, it’s about presence, disruptive and transformative presence. The gospel Mark wrote down is only the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ—the story is still unfolding with us as participants.
The women ran away from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them. If Jesus had been raised and vindicated by a mighty act of God, and if by raising Jesus from the dead God had indeed changed everything – who would they be? How would they live? Little wonder they were afraid. If Jesus is defeated, crucified, dead, and buried – it may break your heart, but it also confirms everything you have suspected about the world all along: Might makes right. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for more of everything and take what they want. But if we can open our small, fearful hearts to the promise and reality of today, new life begins to flow in.
Who will roll away the stone for us? In Mark’s story this is the last question on the lips of those who used to follow Jesus. Who will roll away the stone for us? We know that stone. It lies heavy on us. It slows us down; it blocks our movements; it suffocates our courage. It’s too big for us; nothing we can do can move this stone. This is when Mark says, “Look again and see. The stone has already been rolled back.” And the angel says, “He has been raised. He is not here. He is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him.” God calls us to trust the promise and let it be our path. God calls us to practice resurrection by following the Risen One.
Rev. Thomas Kleinert serves as the senior minister of Vine Street Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). This article is the sermon he preached Easter Sunday 2015.
Footnotes
[1] Mark 16:8b “The Shorter Ending"
[2] Mark 16:9-20 “The Longer Ending”
[3] Mark 14:28
[4] William Sloan Coffin, Credo, p. 28; my emphases
by Thomas Kleinert
In Lent we follow Jesus into the wilderness. Mark tells us that Jesus—still wet from his baptism we imagine; things
are happening fast—is driven
out into the wilderness by the
Spirit. “He was in the wilderness
40 days, tested by Satan; and
he was with the wild beasts; and
the angels waited on him” (Mark 1:13). Wild beasts and angels—God’s people had long felt ambivalent about the wilderness. It was a desolate and dangerous place, undomesticated and unsafe, the abode of demons.
But it also lived in their memory and in God’s as the place and season of first love: “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown” (Jeremiah 2:2). For 40 years, Israel wandered in the wilderness, and it wasn’t all honeymoon. The covenant partners got to know each other, discovered each other’s limits, but Israel also discovered God’s faithful presence and providence: “The Lord sustained Jacob in a desert land, in a howling wilderness waste; he shielded him, cared for him, guarded him as the apple of his eye” (Deuteronomy 32:10).
Jesus’ journey into the wilderness echoes Israel’s formative years of wilderness wanderings, as well as the experiences of two great leaders, Moses and Elijah. Moses received the commandments in the wilderness of Sinai. “He was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the 10 commandments” (Exodus 34:28). Elijah was fleeing from Jezebel, and in the wilderness an angel of the Lord waited on him. “He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb the mount of God” (1 Kings 19:8).
The wilderness is a place where life is pushed to the limits, a place of testing and struggle, but also a place of encounter with God, a place of promise and call.
In Lent we follow Jesus into the wilderness. We put a little distance between ourselves and the constant demands of our day-to-day world. The distance allows our relationship with God to emerge in sharper outline. With silence, fewer distractions, and less attention to what we will eat, drink or wear, Lent is an invitation to walk away a bit and discover anew God’s presence and providence—God’s promise and call for us.
Many think of Lent as a time “to give up” things, caffeine, chocolate, Facebook, alcohol, meat, you name it. A specific fast like that can help us live a little closer to essentials or allow us to practice a lifestyle we believe would be more faithful and life giving. Or, moments of craving can become moments of spiritual desire that lead us to prayer. In the end, though, wilderness time is not about giving up, but about noticing the layers we put between ourselves and who God wants us to be. It’s about noticing them and seeking to have them pulled away.
John Chrysostom, one of the great teachers of the church who lived in the 4th century C.E., spoke of the wilderness as “the mother of quiet; it is a calm and a harbor, delivering us from all turmoil.” In Lent we follow Jesus into the wilderness to see more clearly who he is and who we are to be.
by Phillip Sigmon
As followers of Christ we are pilgrims. We journey along the way that Christ has taught us, bringing us closer to God.
Lent was one of the first rituals in the early church. Those who were new initiates in the Christian life would spend the 40 days before Easter preparing for baptism. Afterwards, they would take their first communion. Lent was an intensive time for the initiates of fasting, prayer, contemplation and education on their new faith. It was preparation for a new life and the end of an old. It was the beginning of a long walk with Christ towards God.
As followers of Christ today, as with our brothers and sisters in the early church, Lent is a time when we remember and reenact Christ’s time of fasting and temptation in the desert. It is also a time of expectation of Christ’s resurrection and our salvation that we celebrate in Easter.
During the Lenten season, my own journey with Christ is one of need. As I look forward to the time of fasting, I am reminded of the ways that I fall short of Christ. I am reminded of my sin and the ways I am tempted to look for happiness in places far away from God. As I fast, it becomes apparent to me how much I need my savior. The exercise of fasting is a part of my walk with Christ—one that leads me in a continued journey to be like the One I walk with.
Let us continue our pilgrimage.
Thanks to you and the leadership of our youth, Vine Street’s recent Souper Bowl of Caring campaign raised more than $736!
All funds will benefit the Society of St. Andrew. According to the Society, every dollar we raised will put 50 servings of healthy, nourishing food on the plates of children, women and men at greatest risk for hunger in this country. Doing the math… more than 36,000 meals will be made available through this collection. Now there’s a winning score!
Souper Bowl of Caring began 25 years ago with a simple prayer from a single youth group: “Lord, even as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game, help us be mindful of those without a bowl of soup to eat.” Since that day, more than $100 million has been raised for local charities across the country through the Souper Bowl of Caring. It has become a powerful movement that is transforming some of the extravagance surrounding Super Bowl weekend into the nation’s largest celebration of giving and serving.
During the 14 years Vine Street has participated in Souper Bowl of Caring, the church has donated more than $8,700 and nearly 600 food items. So what has a bigger impact than a trio of 300-pound linebackers going after a quarterback? We do! On to next season!
The Vine Street youth group leads again the congregation toward collecting its annual Souper Bowl of Caring offering. During the 14 years the church has participated in this offering, we have donated more than $8,000 and nearly 600 food items.
According to the organization, some 25 years ago, the Souper Bowl of Caring began with a simple prayer from a single youth group: “Lord, even as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game, help us be mindful of those without a bowl of soup to eat.” Since that day, more than $100 million has been raised for local charities across the country through the Souper Bowl of Caring. It has become a powerful movement that is transforming some of the extravagance surrounding Super Bowl weekend into the nation’s largest celebration of giving and serving.
The Vine Street youth will be donating the offering to The Society of St. Andrew, a gleaning ministry feeding America’s hungry.
By Julia Keith
The first scripture verse I memorized was John 3:16: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life.”
I thought I was entering a Sunday school competition.
I believed there was a reward based on the accuracy of my recitation. Motivated by the contest, I read this verse over and over. I practiced it every day. I had my mom check to be sure I knew every word. But, I hadn’t heard hear the directions correctly.
There wasn’t a prize—but a gift. One I didn’t quite understand. How could an only son be given away? Aren’t children too precious to abandon? How would believing make you live forever? Weren’t some of my grandparents already gone? Frustrated and befuddled, I put the gift away.
We do that. Limited by our human “abilities,” we put away things that challenge what we think we know.
Thankfully, God knows us and engages us in our confusion... Pursues us on our wayward path... Causes us to remember the promise of a faithful life. And, then, there is the gift, one given because of love.
We (the world) have been chosen to receive this gift. We (the church) have been commissioned to help the world seek answers to what is not yet understood.
Jesus Christ, the Answer, God’s Son, the Gift.
At Christmas, we celebrate the infancy of God’s miraculous gift. Because of God’s grace, we can reopen this gift, re-examine the contents and re-discover how believing brings relationship and how this holy relationship makes possible the ways of God’s love.
Praise God, for this Love! Praise God, for this Life! Praise God for this Gift! Praise God!
The church calendar flips to a new year on Sunday, Nov. 30. That’s when the season of Advent begins, anticipating the birth of Jesus and the hope of new beginnings for all in Christ. Our 10 a.m. traditional worship service with communion will have a special emphasis on this theme through Christmas Eve, and all are welcome to be a part of this celebration.
Several additional events are happening or forming during this season. Join us for any or all!
Sunday Morning Devotional Stories (Nov. 30, Dec. 7, 14, 21)—Pick up a copy of the 2014 Vine Street Advent devotional at the church, then hear about the writers’ inspiration during adult Christian education at 9 a.m.
Hanging of the Greens and Advent Event (Nov. 30)—a casual 4:30 p.m. worship service to deck out the sanctuary. Immediately following, we will spotlight an all-ages creative gathering in Fellowship Hall. Local artist Jason Erwin will provide step-by-step instructions for participants toward creating your own unique Advent painting. No experience necessary, but we would like to know if you are coming so we may have enough supplies. Click here to make a reservation. If you can, bring an appetizer to share.
Montgomery Bell Academy Christmas Concert (Dec. 3)—This annual MBA favorite takes place in our sanctuary at 6:30 p.m.
Brass Band of Nashville Concert (Dec. 4)—Treat yourself to an evening of exhilarating holiday music in the traditional British brass band spirit at 7 p.m.
Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball Tailgate Event (Dec. 13)—Bulk up on great big-game vittles, then experience the magic of Memorial Gym as Vandy takes on Purdue. See your Sunday bulletin for RSVP details.
The 2014 Children’s Christmas Musical (Dec. 17)—Join us at 6 p.m. in Fellowship Hall as a spaghetti dinner ramps up our Children’s Choir holiday presentation of Guess Who’s Coming to Bethlehem: A Manger Mystery Musical.
Christmas Eve at Vine Street (Dec. 24)—Two worship opportunities light the way to the coming Christ child! A family worship service, designed with children in mind, will be at 4 p.m. A traditional candles and communion worship service will be at 11 p.m.
Finally, sign up for these unique opportunities:
Winter Dinners (sign up in early December)—Winter yields to warm nights, good food and new friends with small-group dinners in January, February and March. Each group decides how, when and where they will gather. Participants are grouped based on where they live, generally, so folks who live near one another may get to know each other better. Click here to join.
Winter Retreat at Christmount (Dec. 29-Jan. 1)—An all-church, all-ages, all-kinds-of-fun get-away experience in the not-so-far-away mountains of North Carolina. Reservations due Dec. 10. Learn more here. Just know you want to go? Sign up here.
Vine Street Living Waters is poised to be a mission on the rise.
By Gregory Rumburg
Cheng and Parks with an operating water system in PeruMore than a billion people around the world don’t have access to pure water. With the recent formation of Vine Street Living Waters, that problem will change for some folks in Middle Tennessee and abroad. And while Vine Street Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) regularly makes financial contributions to effect change globally, this mission project is the first involving international, boots-on-the-ground service for the congregation in several years.
A ripple begins
As an outreach effort of Vine Street Christian Church, Vine Street Living Waters aims to address poor access to pure water regionally and internationally by partnering with communities to build low tech, highly-effective water purification systems. This mission work is in partnership with Spring Hill, Tennessee-based Living Waters for the World (LWW), a ministry of the Presbyterian Church, USA.
The genesis moment for the project came from water:360, a series of events facilitated by the Rev. Thomas Kleinert in the fall of 2012. An occasional set of programs, 360s focus on a particular theme and explore it from many perspectives. Past topics included hunger, homelessness, prisons and aging. Introducing water:360, Thomas wrote, “We may well have discovered [in water] the one thing that touches every dimension of our life: physical, spiritual, political, economical, theological. Can you name one aspect of life that doesn’t participate in water’s flow?” Steve Young, executive director of Living Waters for the World, was one of the speakers Thomas selected to address the church on the topic.
“When Steve spoke to Vine Street, several of us were moved. It sounded like something we could be involved in,” Jack Wallace says. “That’s when the seed was sown.” Joe Cheng and his wife, Rebecca Bachschmidt, were among early supporters, too.
“I saw the series moving others the way it moved me and felt it was a calling for our church,” Joe says.
Soon, it was like hydrogen molecules were bonding with oxygen molecules and the tributary conversations that would eventually form Vine Street Living Waters began to flow. As the calendar cascaded from 2012 to 2013, conversations about committing to a partnership with Living Waters for the World became more concrete. Vine Street’s Official Board was brought into the loop. And in the fall of 2013, the initial Concert for Clean Water fundraiser was held at Vine Street to raise seed money for the project. Songwriter and Vine Street member Gabe Dixon, along with songwriters Julie Lee and Erin Enderlin, filled the evening’s bill, raising around $3,200. As a result, the project gained momentum among the congregation, and in 2014, a commitment was made to develop Vine Street Living Waters as a mission effort of the church. Contributions continue to be received from congregational participants and from the Nashville-area community.
Service near home and abroad
While the partnership between Vine Street and Living Waters for the World is new, it’s a model that has precedent among churches and civic organizations from coast to coast. In fact, a similar partnership exists less than a block away. Westminster Presbyterian Church, Vine Street’s West End neighbors, has been partnering with Living Waters for the World for several years. At the suggestion of Young, Vine Street and Westminster struck up an alliance as Vine Street launched its program.
Westminster takes a two-prong approach to its mission. It operates internationally in Peru and regionally in Macon County, Tenn. Vine Street will take a similar approach, identifying soon an international partner while initially working in Macon County. A project there is in the works now says Joanne Jewett. She and Rebecca accompanied Westminster on a visit to the northeastern Tennessee county in the spring.
“We were surprised by the number of homes in the area that did not have city water,” Joanne says. “It’s a very rural area and most people outside of the town rely on well water,” which is, in some cases, of poor quality. “We began to process how we might identify a person or family in need,” she says. With one individual, Vine Street Living Waters is in the process of following Living Waters for the World-directed steps for verifying a bona fide partner.
An operating system in PeruMeanwhile, Vine Street has a long history of sharing its financial resources abroad. For example, it’s a steadfast supporter of Week of Compassion, the disaster relief and humanitarian assistance program of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada. But with Vine Street Living Waters, this is the first time in many years the church has committed to mission-related international travel. To get a taste of the experience, Joe Cheng and Ted Parks accompanied Westminster’s Living Waters team to Peru in May.
“Seeing the actual implementation was a good healthy dose of realism for me,” Joe says. “We feel so compelled to help those who appear the neediest, but forget that there is also a need for a sustainable system that does not fall apart when you leave to go home. For Living Waters to work, we need to help those who can also help themselves and maintain and sustain the system and access to clean water we are helping them get.”
There are many factors involved with selecting an international partner. Vine Street Living Waters participants are now in conversation with Living Waters for the World and with contacts within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) so that a country in which to work and a partner may be selected.
Building a team
Spring's Clean Water U teamClean Water U is the training school of Living Waters for the World. In April, Rebecca Bachschmidt, Joe Cheng, Jim ClenDening, Joanne Jewett, Bob Lyons and Nancy & Thomas Kleinert attended Clean Water U outside of Oxford, Mississippi. Ted Parks, Jacob Parks, Alex Carls and Greg Rumburg attended CWU in northern California in June.
Soon, Vine Street Christian Church participants will have an opportunity to learn from these folks and to be trained for Vine Street Living Waters fieldwork. Ted Parks, who was also an early advocate for the cause, is developing a Sunday morning adult education program for early next year.
“And our children want to be involved!” Nancy Kleinert shares. Keying off materials from Living Waters for the World, Nancy has created five-minute weekly lessons to be shared during Vine Time. “We call these 5-minute lessons ‘Water Drops.’ They will educate and emphasize appreciation for and the importance of clean water that flows to our own homes daily and how we can help others get clean water, too.” Similarly, the Rev. Hope Hodnett spent a day in Macon County with representatives from Westminster anticipating the ways our teenagers may contribute to the cause.
Previously, after Vine Street community members returned from mission trips to places like New Orleans and Detroit, they shared stories about helping others. But more, they noted how they grew spiritually and emotionally from the experience. Joe Cheng believes Vine Street Living Waters will foster similar experiences.
“It will be another bond for us to share as Christians and it will bring our church family closer together,” Joe says. “I don’t really think we know how important something like access to clean water is until we have to do without, and being a part of this project makes us realize how blessed we really are. I feel this will give us another opportunity to do work in Christ’s name, and it will allow us to work together and share in the collaboration.”
(This story is an expanded version of "Rolling Waters," published in the Oct./Nov. 2014 edition of The Vine.)
New service compliments recent Sunday schedule change
The Chapel at Vine StreetVine Street Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) started recently a new Sunday communion service at 8:30 a.m. in its chapel. The service is led by one of the ministers and an elder. It aims to focus on listening for God’s word in scripture, prayer and in sharing communion. With the intention of closing the service by 8:50 a.m., participants will have time to participate in the balance of the recently revised Sunday morning schedule.
“Some of us already like the idea of beginning Sunday morning at Vine Street together with prayer and the meal of thanksgiving,” the Rev. Thomas Kleinert noted on his blog, “and we hope that others will join us on occasion or perhaps every week.”
The service compliments Vine Street’s Sunday morning schedule, which was recast in August. Following communion in the chapel, Christian education opportunities for children, teens and adults are available at 9 a.m. Then, Vine Street’s traditional worship service, which also includes weekly celebration of communion, follows at 10 a.m. in the sanctuary.
About the new schedule, Thomas noted, “We have heard many positive comments, particularly about the time after [10 a.m.] worship when we gathered in Fellowship Hall. Several people appreciated the opportunity to talk with folks with whom they rarely got to exchange more than a friendly ‘Hello! How are you?’ on Sunday mornings before."
Benefit performance features Gabe Dixon, Sarah Siskind and Oliver Wood
DixonVine Street Christian Church will host on Sept. 6 its fall Concert for Clean Water, benefitting Vine Street Living Waters. This outdoor show features performances by singer/songwriter and Vine Street member Gabe Dixon, plus friends Sarah Siskind and Oliver Wood. No tickets are required. A $25 donation is suggested for adults. A limited number of reserve tables (seating up to eight) are available for an additional $100. Children are admitted free to the concert.
The Concert for Clean Water benefits Vine Street Living Waters, an outreach effort of the church which aims to improve access to clean, safe drinking water regionally and internationally by partnering with communities to build low tech, highly-effective water purification systems. It shares a covenantal relationship with Living Waters for the World, a global mission project of the Synod of Living Waters of the Presbyterian Church (USA), which partners with communities in need to develop a sustainable solution for providing clean water.
This is the second Concert for Clean Water Vine Street has sponsored. Previous fundraisers have allowed several individuals from the Vine Street community to attend Clean Water U, a training program developed by Living Waters for the World. In partnership with its West End neighbors, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Vine Street Living Waters participants have also traveled to Macon Co., Tennessee, and to Peru to observe how Living Waters makes a difference. Soon, Vine Street Living Waters will engage its own projects.
For the Saturday, Sept. 6 event, Vine Street Christian Church invites everyone to bring a picnic dinner, to set up lawn chairs and blankets, and to visit with friends prior to the show. The lawn near the playground (behind the church) will open at 6 p.m. The Concert for Clean Water begins at 7:30 p.m.
Parking is available off Montgomery Bell Avenue, between West End Avenue and Woodlawn Drive.
In case of rain, the Concert for Clean Water will be moved into Vine Street’s Fellowship Hall, accessible from Montgomery Bell Avenue.
To reserve a table for the show, contact Joanne Jewett (amadornash@aol.com). Questions about this and other Vine Street Christian Church programs may be directed to Greg Rumburg by calling 615/269-5614 or via email at greg@vinestreet.org.